From playing a dying girl in a teen drama to playing the queen in one of the hottest TV shows of 2022, actress Olivia Cooke has an extensive filmography. She has collaborated with many top actors such as Vera Farmiga in Bates Motel, Annette Bening and Oscar Isaac in life itself, and Anya Taylor-Joy in Thoroughbreds. She even starred in the Academy Award-winning movie The sound of metal. Cooke played lovers, sociopaths, characters determined to get revenge, and even an avatar of himself in Steven Spielberg’s 2018 virtual reality film Ready player one, looking for the Easter egg inside and outside the OASIS.
Most notably, Cooke is now playing the old version of Queen Alicent Hightower in the latest Game of Thrones spin-off series House of the Dragon. She’s ready to play the queen for the rest of the series, which has already been renewed for a second season.In addition to this ongoing rendition, the thriller breast milk starring Hilary Swank and Cooke will premiere in 2023. Until then, here are Olivia Cooke’s best performances, ranked.
6/6 Ready Player One
In the 2018 Spielberg virtual reality epic, Ready Player OneCooke plays the avatar named Art3mis, also known as the human Samantha. She plays the cool girl known for her skills in the game and her quest for the Easter eggs and a life full of riches. She eventually becomes so much more than her avatar. She and the main character Parzival, aka Wade, create a bond and help save their world, virtually and in real life. Cooke plays an excellent shape-shifter with softness and charisma in play, and passion and genuineness in the outside world. A true action heroine that is both fun to watch and to look forward to.
5/6 thoroughbreds
Starring Anya Taylor Joy (The queen’s gambit, the witch) and Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Green Room) in the crime drama thoroughbreds, Cooke plays Amanda, the girl with an unknown condition that has left her emotionless. Lily (Taylor-Joy) is paid by Amanda’s mother to be her daughter’s girlfriend. After being disconnected for a while, they meet again and come up with a plan to solve all their problems. Although he plays a character with sociopathic tendencies, Cooke’s performance is witty, disturbing and captivating to watch.
4/6 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
In the book adaptation of the 2015 comedy romance film Me and Earl and the Dying GirlCooke plays Rachel, a young girl dying of cancer. Two best friends, Earl and Greg, wanted to make a movie for their acquaintance Rachel as she battles cancer, but learn to accept each other and themselves during the making of the movie. While playing the love interest in a young adult film from the early 2000s, Cooke’s character capitalizes on those tropes, but breaks them too. Being fiercely independent and really wanting nothing to do with Greg, she points out his flaws and weaknesses and delivers a tear-jerking performance.
3/6 Bates Motel
Cooke plays another girl with an illness and plays the character Emma Decody in Alfred Hitchcock’s prequel psychosis, Bates Motel. She develops a crush on Norman Bates (played by Freddie Highmore) and is a very present character in his and his mother’s lives. Her performance gives Emma the old-soul-esque quality she is praised for, and the soft quirkiness that fits perfectly into the world of psychosis and Bates Motel.
In the Academy Award-winning movie Sound of metal, drummer Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed) loses his hearing and desperately tries to find himself after losing his art form. Cooke plays Lou, Ruben’s girlfriend who sings and loves him desperately. Cooke does a fantastic job of playing the lover of someone who is self-destructive. Her performance is so touching, it makes us sympathize and hurt when she finally has to leave Ruben to save both herself and him. Cooke shines in a serious role and gives such an emotional performance in Sound of metal.
1/6 House of the Dragon
Game of Thrones fans are excited about the new prequel series, House of the Dragon. Starring Cooke, she stars alongside 18-year-old Emily Cary, both of whom play the Queen Alicent Hightower at different stages of her life. One is as a child growing into her role in society, and the other as queen, rivaling Emma D’Arcy and Millie Alcock’s character of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Cooke brings a fierce elegance and an underlying unraveling to her character. Playing a villain who doesn’t see himself as such makes for a wonderfully interesting rendition and a fantastic rivalry in both main characters. With her attachment to the House of the Dragon world now, there’s no doubt we’ll be seeing Cooke in many more projects.